Editing Spanish protectorate in Morocco (section)

==Administration==
[[File:Tetuan - La residencia 1920.jpg|thumb|Residence of the Spanish High Commissioner in [[Tétouan]], ca. 1920; absorbed in the late 1950s into the [[Royal Palace of Tétouan]]]]
[[File:Morocco Protectorate.svg|thumb|French and Spanish protectorates in Morocco from 1912 until 1956]]

The administrative regime of the Protectorate is derived from the concept of protectorate itself, with a formal duality of authorities. On the one hand, there is a Moroccan administration, headed by a ''Khalifa'' ({{langx|es|Jalifa}}), who exercised, by delegation of the Sultan, all his powers, mainly the legislative, which he exercised through the ''dahir'' (decree). He was also the highest religious authority. This government led by the Khalifa received the name of ''Makhzen'' and was divided into departments, like ministries, coordinated by the Grand Vizier. The ministers were the ''qadi al-qudat'' (chief or judge of judges), the Vizier of the ''Habus'' (inalienable patrimony whose income is destined to a pious or religious work or institution), the ''amin al-amlak'' and the ''amin al-umana'' (minister of Finance). It had an advisory council made up of two representatives from each of the five regions. The ''Khalifa'' was chosen by the Sultan from a pair proposed by the Spanish government. The first ''Khalifa'' was Mohammed Mehedi Ould Ben Ismael. Ishmael was the brother of Sultan Hassan I and later Sultan Hassan I was the great-uncle of the second ''Khalifa''. The first ''Khalifa'' took office in Tetouan on 27 April 1913. Only two Khalifas held office until the independence of Morocco, Muley el Mehdi (between 1913 and 1923) and his son Muley el Hassán bin el Mehdi (who took office at the age of thirteen, ruling between 1925 and 1941 and 1945 and 1956).

The Spanish administration was led by a High Commissioner, formally accredited to the Khalifa but in fact the highest authority in the Protectorate. The High Commissary directed the political action of Spain in the Protectorate, and orders and instructions emanated from it. The high commissioner was assisted by various departments (Indigenous Affairs Development and Finance). There was a territorial controller in each of the regions, directly represented to the Delegation of Indigenous Affairs. Subordinate to him, there was a next level, with regional auditors and, finally, local auditors. The maintenance of order was in charge of the Regulares (forces of the Spanish army with "indigenous" Rif people) and the Indigenous Police. On the military side, the high commissioner was assisted by three commanders based in Ceuta, Melilla and Larache.

The administrative organization was arranged, at a general level, in this way: The High Commissioner was responsible for the direction of the Spanish action in the entire area and all the authorities (including the military) were subordinate to him. Among its activities were to intervene in the acts of the Khalifa, the regime of the cities in which the consuls acted as controllers, to dictate the general policy and to approve or direct, where appropriate, military operations. The Indigenous services department was entrusted with the General Secretariat and advising on all matters relating to relations with the Kabyles, the inspection of the Islamic Justice Administration, relations with the Consular Jurisdiction for the protection of the natives and with the Sheriff for everything related to real estate and the vindication of property, the inspection of schools and health care centers and the Spanish missions in educational work.

In Morocco, there was no prior organization to ensure public health, except in Tangier, and the Spanish tried to remedy this deficiency, creating in 1916 the Health Inspectorate, within the Office of Indigenous Affairs. The Spanish had to overcome the distrust that Moroccans felt towards their healers and home remedies, carrying out large vaccination campaigns that contributed to the prestige of the protecting country. Along with health action, culture was the other pending subject for Moroccans, since teaching was closely linked to religion and consisted of memorizing the [[Quran]]. Spain entrusted the task of educating the population to the Delegation of Indigenous Affairs, which depended on a Board of Education that was created on 3 April 1913. This Board was born with the purpose of training the personnel who would be dedicated to this task and as an instrument to learn about geography, literature, history and the Moroccan law. To this end, a Center for Moroccan Studies was organized in the Free Institute of Diplomatic and Consular Careers and Arabic chairs were created in some business schools and an Arabic board was created in the Board for the Extension of Studies.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Subsequently, Indigenous Affairs offices were created in Melilla and Ceuta that exercised surveillance functions, somewhat similar, in the occupied regions. In 1937, in the middle of the [[Spanish Civil War]], the territorial organization of Spanish Morocco was in charge of the High Commissioner of the Territory and a Lieutenant Colonel responsible for civil and military affairs.

The High Commissioner and the Khalifa had their respective residences in two adjacent palaces in [[Tétouan]], which following Morocco's independence in 1956 have been merged into a single compound and repurposed as the [[Royal Palace of Tétouan]].<ref>{{citation|journal=Africa|volume=77-78|date=1948|publisher=Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Estudios Africanos|location=Madrid|url=http://simurg.bibliotecas.csic.es/viewer/image/CSIC000102257_A1948_N77-78/21/|title=Las residencias de S.A.I. el Jalifa y S.E. el Alto Comisario en Tetuán|author=Juan Arrate|access-date=2022-02-19|archive-date=2022-02-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219231032/http://simurg.bibliotecas.csic.es/viewer/image/CSIC000102257_A1948_N77-78/21/|url-status=live}}</ref>